The present invention relates to a tow conveyor for moving shopping carts between two different floors of a building. More specifically, the present invention relates to an inclined shopping cart conveyor that can be positioned adjacent to a people-moving escalator such that the shopping cart conveyor moves the shopping carts between two different floors of a building to coincide with the movement of the shoppers.
Currently, many large department stores occupy single-floor buildings that include many different product departments and thus have a footprint that covers tens of thousands of square feet. In these large department stores, shoppers typically use shopping carts to carry selected merchandise throughout the store while the shopper continues to select merchandise from the various departments within the store. Since a shopper may be selecting a large number of items having substantial weight, shopping carts are essential in the current department store environment.
Large single-floor department stores are often located in suburban areas where enough land is available to build a store large enough to include all of the merchandise to be offered by the retailer. Many large department store chains have been unable to open stores in populated urban areas due to the unavailability of large blocks of land for single-floor retail space. In these same urban areas, there are often a number of smaller land lots or multi-floor vacant buildings that would be large enough to accommodate the floor space required by the department store.
Additionally, many department stores prefer a single checkout location where all shoppers enter or exit the store. For these and other reasons, a multi-floor department store that is capable of utilizing shopping carts and having a single checkout location is desirable.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,979 filed Dec. 10, 2002 discloses an inclined shopping cart conveyor system and is hereby incorporated by reference.